Genetics of juvenile rheumatic diseases

Author(s):  
Anne Hinks ◽  
Wendy Thomson

Juvenile rheumatic diseases are heterogeneous, complex genetic diseases; to date only juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) has been extensively studied in terms of identifying genetic risk factors. The MHC region is a well-established risk factor but in the last few years candidate gene and genome-wide association studies have been utilized in the search for non-HLA risk factors. There are now an additional 12 JIA susceptibility loci with evidence for association in more than one study. In addition, some subtype-specific associations are emerging. These risk loci now need to be investigated further using fine-mapping strategies and then appropriate functional studies to show how the variant alters the gene function. This knowledge will not only lead to a better understanding of disease pathogenesis for juvenile rheumatic diseases but may also aid in the classification of these heterogeneous diseases. It may identify new pathways for potential therapeutic targets and help in the prediction of disease outcome and response to treatment.

Author(s):  
Anne Hinks ◽  
Wendy Thomson

Juvenile rheumatic diseases are heterogeneous, complex genetic diseases; to date only juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) has been extensively studied in terms of identifying genetic risk factors. The MHC region is a well-established risk factor but in the last few years candidate gene and large-scale genome-wide association studies have been utilized in the search for non-HLA risk factors. There are now 17 JIA susceptibility loci which reach the genome-wide significance threshold for association and a further 7 regions with evidence for association in more than one study. In addition, some subtype-specific associations are emerging. These risk loci now need to be investigated further using fine-mapping strategies and then appropriate functional studies to show how the variant alters the gene function. This knowledge will not only lead to a better understanding of disease pathogenesis for juvenile rheumatic diseases but may also aid in the classification of these heterogeneous diseases. It may identify new pathways for potential therapeutic targets and help in the prediction of disease outcome and response to treatment.


Author(s):  
Anne Hinks ◽  
Wendy Thomson

Juvenile rheumatic diseases are heterogeneous, complex genetic diseases; to date only juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) has been extensively studied in terms of identifying genetic risk factors. The MHC region is a well-established risk factor but in the last few years candidate gene and large-scale genome-wide association studies have been utilized in the search for non-HLA risk factors. There are now 17 JIA susceptibility loci which reach the genome-wide significance threshold for association and a further 7 regions with evidence for association in more than one study. In addition, some subtype-specific associations are emerging. These risk loci now need to be investigated further using fine-mapping strategies and then appropriate functional studies to show how the variant alters the gene function. This knowledge will not only lead to a better understanding of disease pathogenesis for juvenile rheumatic diseases but may also aid in the classification of these heterogeneous diseases. It may identify new pathways for potential therapeutic targets and help in the prediction of disease outcome and response to treatment.


Author(s):  
Elena Lopez-Isac ◽  
Anne Hinks ◽  
Wendy Thomson

Juvenile rheumatic diseases are heterogeneous, complex genetic diseases; to date only juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) has been extensively studied in terms of identifying genetic risk factors. The MHC region is a well-established risk factor but in the last few years candidate gene and large-scale genome-wide association studies have been utilized in the search for non-HLA risk factors. There are now 17 JIA susceptibility loci which reach the genome-wide significance threshold for association and a further 7 regions with evidence for association in more than one study. In addition, some subtype-specific associations are emerging. These risk loci now need to be investigated further using fine-mapping strategies and then appropriate functional studies to show how the variant alters the gene function. This knowledge will not only lead to a better understanding of disease pathogenesis for juvenile rheumatic diseases but may also aid in the classification of these heterogeneous diseases. It may identify new pathways for potential therapeutic targets and help in the prediction of disease outcome and response to treatment.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuquan Rao ◽  
Yao Yao ◽  
Daniel E. Bauer

AbstractGenome-wide association studies (GWAS) have uncovered thousands of genetic variants that influence risk for human diseases and traits. Yet understanding the mechanisms by which these genetic variants, mainly noncoding, have an impact on associated diseases and traits remains a significant hurdle. In this review, we discuss emerging experimental approaches that are being applied for functional studies of causal variants and translational advances from GWAS findings to disease prevention and treatment. We highlight the use of genome editing technologies in GWAS functional studies to modify genomic sequences, with proof-of-principle examples. We discuss the challenges in interrogating causal variants, points for consideration in experimental design and interpretation of GWAS locus mechanisms, and the potential for novel therapeutic opportunities. With the accumulation of knowledge of functional genetics, therapeutic genome editing based on GWAS discoveries will become increasingly feasible.


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (16) ◽  
pp. 5835
Author(s):  
Maria-Ancuta Jurj ◽  
Mihail Buse ◽  
Alina-Andreea Zimta ◽  
Angelo Paradiso ◽  
Schuyler S. Korban ◽  
...  

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) are useful in assessing and analyzing either differences or variations in DNA sequences across the human genome to detect genetic risk factors of diseases prevalent within a target population under study. The ultimate goal of GWAS is to predict either disease risk or disease progression by identifying genetic risk factors. These risk factors will define the biological basis of disease susceptibility for the purposes of developing innovative, preventative, and therapeutic strategies. As single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are often used in GWAS, their relevance for triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) will be assessed in this review. Furthermore, as there are different levels and patterns of linkage disequilibrium (LD) present within different human subpopulations, a plausible strategy to evaluate known SNPs associated with incidence of breast cancer in ethnically different patient cohorts will be presented and discussed. Additionally, a description of GWAS for TNBC will be presented, involving various identified SNPs correlated with miRNA sites to determine their efficacies on either prognosis or progression of TNBC in patients. Although GWAS have identified multiple common breast cancer susceptibility variants that individually would result in minor risks, it is their combined effects that would likely result in major risks. Thus, one approach to quantify synergistic effects of such common variants is to utilize polygenic risk scores. Therefore, studies utilizing predictive risk scores (PRSs) based on known breast cancer susceptibility SNPs will be evaluated. Such PRSs are potentially useful in improving stratification for screening, particularly when combining family history, other risk factors, and risk prediction models. In conclusion, although interpretation of the results from GWAS remains a challenge, the use of SNPs associated with TNBC may elucidate and better contextualize these studies.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jingshu Wang ◽  
Qingyuan Zhao ◽  
Jack Bowden ◽  
Gilbran Hemani ◽  
George Davey Smith ◽  
...  

Over a decade of genome-wide association studies have led to the finding that significant genetic associations tend to spread across the genome for complex traits. The extreme polygenicity where "all genes affect every complex trait" complicates Mendelian Randomization studies, where natural genetic variations are used as instruments to infer the causal effect of heritable risk factors. We reexamine the assumptions of existing Mendelian Randomization methods and show how they need to be clarified to allow for pervasive horizontal pleiotropy and heterogeneous effect sizes. We propose a comprehensive framework GRAPPLE (Genome-wide mR Analysis under Pervasive PLEiotropy) to analyze the causal effect of target risk factors with heterogeneous genetic instruments and identify possible pleiotropic patterns from data. By using summary statistics from genome-wide association studies, GRAPPLE can efficiently use both strong and weak genetic instruments, detect the existence of multiple pleiotropic pathways, adjust for confounding risk factors, and determine the causal direction. With GRAPPLE, we analyze the effect of blood lipids, body mass index, and systolic blood pressure on 25 disease outcomes, gaining new information on their causal relationships and the potential pleiotropic pathways.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gaëlle Munsch ◽  
Louisa Goumidi ◽  
Astrid van Hylckama Vlieg ◽  
Manal Ibrahim-Kosta ◽  
Maria Bruzelius ◽  
...  

In studies of time-to-events, it is common to collect information about events that occurred before the inclusion in a prospective cohort. In an ambispective design, when the risk factors studied are independent of time, including both pre- and post-inclusion events in the analyses increases the statistical power but may lead to a selection bias. To avoid such a bias, we propose a survival analysis weighted by the inverse of the survival probability at the time of data collection about the events. This method is applied to the study of the association of ABO blood groups with the risk of venous thromboembolism (VT) recurrence in the MARTHA and MEGA cohorts. The former relying on an ambispective design and the latter on a standard prospective one. In the combined sample totalling 2,752 patients including 993 recurrences, compared with the O1 group, A1 has an increased risk (Hazard Ratio (HR) of 1.18, p=4.2x10-3), homogeneously in MARTHA and in MEGA. The same trend (HR=1.19, p=0.06) was observed for the less frequent A2 group. In conclusion, this work clarified the association of ABO blood groups with the risk of VT recurrence. Besides, the methodology proposed here to analyse time-independent risk factors of events in an ambispective design has an immediate field of application in the context of genome wide association studies.


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